ANTI-ALIEN 

f.r 

LEGISLATION 

IN 

CALIFORNIA 



Statements and Messages by 
Gov. Hiram W. Johnson 


Comment on California’s Attitude 
by Eastern Investigators 

1o 






CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Land Law Enacted by Legislature... 3 

State Within Its Rights. 4 

What of Dignity of California?. 5 

Governor Johnson’s Answer to Secretary of State Bryan.... 6 

California’s Side of It. 8 

Japan in California. 11 


n. nr n. 

MAR 28 

. * 








ANTI -ALI EN 
LEGISLATION 

IN 

CALIFORNIA 



Statements and Messages by 
Gov. Hiram W. Johnson 

Comment on California’s Attitude 
by Eastern Investigators 






CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Land Law Enacted by Legislature. 3 

State Within Its Rights. 4 

What of Dignity of California? 


Governor Johnson’s Answer to Secretary of State Bryan.... 6 


California’s Side of It. 8 

Japan in California. 11 


E Y OF CONWfcSS 

r25D23 

EN T^0|V^|0N 


'JJ 









LAND LAW ENACTED BY STATE 
LEGISLATURE IN 1913 

CHAPTER 113: An act relating to the rights , powers and disabilities of aliens and 
of certain companies, associations and corporations with respect to property in 
this state, providing for escheats in certain cases, prescribing the procedure 
therein, and repealing all acts or parts of acts inconsistent or in conflict herewith. 

(Approved May 19, 1913.) 

'1 he People of the State of California do enact as follows : 


Section 1 . All aliens eligible to 
citizenship under the laws of the United 
States may acquire, possess, enjoy, 
transmit and inherit real property, or 
any interest therein, in this state, in 
the same manner and to the same ex¬ 
tent as citizens of the United States, 
except as otherwise provided by the 
laws of this state. 

Sec. 2. All aliens other than those 
mentioned in section one of this act 
may acquire, possess, enjoy and trans¬ 
fer real property, or any interest there¬ 
in, in this state, in the manner and to 
the extent and for the purposes pre¬ 
scribed by any treaty now existing be¬ 
tween the government of the United 
States and the nation or country of 
which such alien is a citizen or sub¬ 
ject and not otherwise, and may in ad¬ 
dition thereto lease lands in this state 
for agricultural purposes for a term not 
exceeding three years. 

Sec. 3. Any company, association or 
corporation organized under the laws of 
this or any other state or nation, of 
which a majority of the members are 
aliens other than those specified in sec¬ 
tion one of this act, or in which a ma¬ 
jority of the issued capital stock i§». 
owned by such aliens, may acquire, 
possesses, enjoy and convey real prop¬ 
erty, or any interest therein, in this 
state, in the manner and to the extent 
and for the purposes prescribed by ; any 
treaty now existing between the gov¬ 
ernment of the United States and the 
nation or country of which such mem¬ 
bers or stockholders are citizens or sub¬ 
jects, and not otherwise, and may in ad¬ 
dition thereto lease lands in this state 
for agricultural purposes fpr a term not 
exceeding three years. 

Sec. 4. Whenever it appears to the 
court in any probate proceeding that by 
reason of the provisions of this act any 
heir of devisee can not take real prop¬ 
erty in this state which, but for said 
provisions, said heir or devisee wouid 
take as such, the _ court, instead of 
ordering a distribution of such real 
propertv to such heir or devisee, shall 
order a sale of said real property to be 
made in the manner provided by law for 
probate sales of real property, and the 
proceeds of such sale shall be distribut¬ 


ed to such heir or devisee in lieu of such 
real property. 

Sec. 5. Any real property hereafter 
acquired in fee in violation of the pro¬ 
visions of this act by any alien men¬ 
tioned in section two of this act, or by 
any company, association or corpora¬ 
tion mentioned in section three of this 
act, shall escheat to, and become and 
remain the property of the State of 
California. The attorney general shall 
institute proceedings to have the escheat 
of such real property adjudged and en¬ 
forced in the manner provided by sec¬ 
tion 474 of the Political Code and title 
eight, part three of the Code of Civil 
Procedure. Upon the entry of final 
judgment in such proceedings, the title 
to such real property shall pass to the 
State of California. The provisions of 
this section and of sections two and 
three of this act shall not apply to any 
real property hereafter acquired in the 
enforcement or in satisfaction of any 
lien now existing upon, or interest in 
such property, so long as such real 
property so acquired shall remain the 
property of the alien, company, asso¬ 
ciation or corporation acquiring the same 
in such manner..,,... 

Sec. 6. Any ’ leasehold or other in¬ 
terest in real property;'less than the fee, 
hereafter acquired in ‘ violation of the 
provisions of this act by any alien 
mentioned- in section 1 two of this act, 
or by any . company; association, or 
corporation mentioned in section three 
of this act, shall escheat to the State of 
California. The attorney general shall 
institute proceedings to have such 
escheat adjudged and enforced as pro¬ 
vided in section five of this act. In such 
proceedings the court shall determine 
and adjudge the value of such lease¬ 
hold, or other interest in such real 
property, and enter judgment for the 
state for the amount thereof together 
with costs. Thereupon the court shall 
order a sale of real property covered 
by such leasehold, or other interest, in 
the manner provided by section 1271 
of the Code of Civil Procedure. Out 
of the proceeds arising from such sale, 
the amount of the judgment rendered 
for the state shall be paid into the state 
treasury and the balance shall be de- 



4 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


posited with and distributed by the 
court in accordance with the interest of 
the parties therein. 

Sec. 7. Nothing in this act shall be 
construed as a limitation upon the 
power of the state to enact laws with 


respect to the acquisition, holding or 
disposal by aliens of real property in 
this state. 

Sec. 8. All acts and parts of acts 
inconsistent, or in conflict with the pro¬ 
visions of this act are hereby repealed. 


STATEMENTS AND MESSAGES BY 
GOVERNOR HIRAM W. JOHNSON 


State Is Within Its Rights, Says Governor; Why Should It 

Be Made Object of Attack? 


Governor Johnson gave to the press 
the following statement bearing upon 
the anti-alien issue: 

“Californians are unable to under¬ 
stand why an Act admittedly within the 
jurisdiction of the California Legisla¬ 
ture, like the passage of an alien land 
bill, creates tumult, confusion and 
criticism and why this local Act of un¬ 
doubted right becomes an international 
question. 

Same Rights as Other States. 

“Of course, the California Legisla¬ 
ture would not attempt to contravene 
any treaty of the Nation, nor to do 
more than has been done by the Federal 
Government itself and many other 
states. 

“To say that California must do less 
or be subjected to harsh criticism and 
the charge of disrupting friendly rela¬ 
tions with foreign powers is to deny to 
California what has been freely accord¬ 
ed to every other state in the Union and 
what has never been questioned with 
any other state. 

“OUR LEGISLATURE IS NOW 
CONSIDERING AN ALIEN LAND 
BILL IN GENERAL LANGUAGE 
AND NOT DISCRIMINATORY. IF 
TERMS ARE USED WHICH ARE 
DECLARED TO BE DISCRIMINA¬ 
TORY, THOSE VERY TERMS 
LONG SINCE WERE MADE SO BY 
MANY ENACTMENTS AND BY 
THE LAWS OF THE NATION IT¬ 
SELF. 

Laws in Other States. 

“Broadly speaking, many States have 
endeavored to prevent the ownership 
of land by those ineligible to citizenship. 
The power to pass such laws is con¬ 
ceded, but immediately upon the exer¬ 
cise of this power by a great sovereign 
State a remarkable and inexplicable out¬ 
cry is heard all over the land and in 
other lands as well. 


“THE UNITED STATES BY 
STATUTE PROVIDED THAT NO 
ALIEN OR PERSON WHO IS NOT 
A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED 
STATES OR WHO LIAS NOT DE¬ 
CLARED HIS INTENTION TO BE¬ 
COME A CITIZEN OF THE UNIT¬ 
ED STATES, SHALL ACQUIRE 
TITLE TO LAND, ETC., AND IN 
RELATION TO THE DISTRICT 
OF COLUMBIA, THE UNITED 
STATES STATUTES CONTAIN 
THE SAME INPIIBITION. 

“Arizona, in 1912, passed its Act that 
no person other than a citizen of the 
United States or who has declared his 
intention to become such shall hereaf¬ 
ter acquire any land, etc., and this 
statute, though passed in 1912 did not 
provoke a storm of protest from well- 
meaning philanthropists in our own 
land, or threaten a rupture in diplo¬ 
matic relations with any foreign na¬ 
tion. 

Similar Law in Washington. 

“The state of Washington prevents 
the acquisition or holding of lands by 
those who are ‘incapable of becoming 
citizens of the United States, and 
neither the right nor the propriety of 
this enactment by the State of Wash¬ 
ington was denied. 

“Illinois has enacted that an alien 
may hold title for the period of six 
years and then if he shall not have be¬ 
come a citizen of the United States 
proceedings shall be commenced for the 
sale of the land and the proceeds shall 
go to the State. 

“Minnesota provides that no person 
unless he be a citizen of the United 
States or has declared his intention to 
become a citizen shall acquire land. 

“Missouri has a similar enactment, 
Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, all have 
laws of this character. 






ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


5 


Turn About Fair Play. 

“We of California ask, therefore, why 
should California be singled out for at¬ 
tack when it is exercising the same 
right that has been exercised by so 
many states and by the United States 
itself? 

“Japan, until 1910, had an absolute 
law against alien ownership, and in ef¬ 
fect has it yet. What the United States 
Government has done, what has been 
done by many States of the Union, 
what has been done by Japan—all of 
which admittedly has been done in pur¬ 
suance of unquestioned power and un¬ 
doubted right—is now attempted to be 
done by the State of California; and 
no reason can logically exist for hys¬ 
teria, for sundering friendly relations 


with any power, or for offense and 
threats by any nation. 

“THE CHARACTER OF THE 
PRESENT CALIFORNIA LEGISLA¬ 
TURE IS THE GUARANTEE THAT 
ONLY LEGISLATION DEEMED 
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL FOR 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE 
STATE AND THE PROTECTION 
OF ITS PEOPLE—LEGISLATION 
HAVING ITS PRECEDENT IN THE 
ENACTMENT OF THE NATIONAL 
GOVERNMENT AND THE VARI¬ 
OUS STATES—WILL BE PASSED. 
And such measures as may be enacted 
will be considered thoroughly, calmly, 
judicially and without prejudice or dis¬ 
crimination.”—Sacramento Bee, March 
19, 1913. 


WHAT OF THE DIGNITY OF 

CALIFORNIA? 


Governor Hiram W. Johnson yester¬ 
day gave out the following statement 
concerning his position on the proposed 
anti-alien land legislation : 

The suggestion of the President that 
the secretary of state visit California 
for conference on the pending land bills 
was at once accepted by both houses of 
the legislature and by the governor, 
and we will be glad to welcome Mr. 
Bryan on his arrival. 

While the legislature very properly 
maintained the right of the state to 
legislate on a matter clearly within its 
jurisdiction, I am sure there is no dis¬ 
position to encroach on the interna¬ 
tional functions of the federal govern¬ 
ment, or justly to wound the sensibilities 
of any nation. 

My protest has been against the dis¬ 
crimination to which California has 
been subjected in the assumption that 
action which has been accepted without 
demur when taken by other states and 
by the nation is offensive if even dis¬ 
cussed by California. 

Much has been said of the dignity of 
Japan. We would not willingly affront 
the dignity of Japan, nor offend its 
pride. But what shall be said of the 
proposition that a great state, itself an 
empire, of possibilities greater than 
those of most nations, shall be halted 
from the mere consideration of a leg¬ 
islative act, admittedly within its juris¬ 
diction, and so halted by the protest of 
a foreign power which has itself enacted 
even more stringent regulations on the 
same subject? What of the dignity of 
California? 


Admittedly, California has a right to 
pass an Alien Land Bill. No one sug¬ 
gests that such a bill should in terms 
describe the Japanese. It has been 
suggested that such a law in California 
shall follow the distinctions which are 
already an unprotested part of the law 
and policy of the United States. The 
United States has determined who are 
eligible to citizenship. 

The nation has solemnly decreed that 
certain races, among whom are the 
Japanese, are not eligible to citizenship. 
The line has been drawn not by Cali¬ 
fornia, but by the United States. Dis¬ 
crimination. if it ever occurred, came and 
went, when the nation declared who 
were and who were not eligible to 
citizenship. If California follows the line 
marked out by the federal government 
the LTnited States and not California 
should be accused of discrimination. 

The constitution of California since 
1879 has said that the presence of 
foreigners, ineligible to become citizens 
of the United States, is declared to be 
dangerous to the well-being of the 
state, and the legislature shall discour¬ 
age their immigration by all means 
within its power. The alien land law of 
the state of Washington provides that 
“an alien, except such as by the laws 
of the United States are incapable of 
becoming citizens of the United^ States, 
may acquire and hold land, etc.” The 
state of Arizona in 1912 enacted that 
“no person not eligible to become a citi¬ 
zen of the United States shall acquire 
title to any land or real property, etc.” 
No protest was made against the 





6 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


policy of the laws of the United States, 
nor against its adoption into the laws of 
Washington and Arizona. If the legis¬ 
lature of California were to determine 
on similar action, it would be merely 
following the declaration of our consti¬ 
tution, the policy of the United States 
government, and the precedents of at 
least two states. 

Protest Against Verbal Assault 

We protest, while we are merely de¬ 
bating similar laws, against having 
trained upon us, not only the verbal 
batteries of Japan, but those of our 
own country. 

The position that we occupy at this 
moment is not pleasant to contemplate. 
Calmly and dispassionately, we are dis¬ 
cussing a law admittedly within our 
province to enact. Objection is made 
by Japan and forthwith it is demanded 
that we cease even discussion, and 


upon us, if we do not cease calm and 
dispassionate consideration of that 
which is desired by a great portion of 
our people, and which we have the 
legal and moral right to do, is placed 
the odium of bringing possible financial 
disaster and even worse upon our na¬ 
tion. 

What a situation for a great state and 
a great people! 

The question in all its various forms 
is an old and familiar one. The only 
thing about it is the hysteria which it 
seems to arouse when California is the 
place in which it comes up. My pro¬ 
test has been and is against this dis¬ 
crimination. This state will not willing¬ 
ly do anything to which there could be 
just objection, national or international. 
But it does resent being singled out for 
opposition on matters which pass un¬ 
protested when they happen elsewhere. 
—“California Outlook,” March 15, 1913. 


GOVERNOR JOHNSON’S ANSWER 
TO SECRETARY OF STATE 

BRYAN 


Sacramento, May 14, 1913. 
Hon. Wm, J. Bryan, 

Secretary of State, 

Washington, D. C. 

Your very courteous telegram relat¬ 
ing to the Alien Land Bill reached me 
late Sunday night. 

I take it from our conversations and 
your requets made to me to withhold 
executive action until opportunity was 
accorded for the presentation of sug¬ 
gestions from the Federal government 
that your telegram embodies what it 
was your wish and the wish of the 
President to say to us before final ac¬ 
tion. 

In this response it is my design most 
respectfully to present the situation 
from our standpoint, and the views 
that actuated our legislature in passing 
the bill, and that impell me to sanction 
it. 

For many years, a very grave prob¬ 
lem. little understood in the East, lias 
confronted California; a problem, the 
seriousness of which has been recog¬ 
nized by statesmen in our nation, and 
has been viewed with apprehension by 
The People of this state. 

When the present constitution of 
California was adopted more than thir¬ 
ty years ago, it contained the following 
declaration: 

“The presence of foreigners ineligible 


to become citizens of the United States 
is declared to be dangerous to the well¬ 
being of the State, and the Legisla¬ 
ture shall discourage their immigration 
by all means within its power”. 

Of late years our problem from an¬ 
other angle has become acute, and the 
agitation has been continuous in the 
last decade in reference to our agricul¬ 
tural lands, until finally affirmative ac¬ 
tion in an attempted solution became 
imperative. 

This attempted solution is found in 
the action of our Legislature in the 
passage of the Alien Land Bill. In the 
phraseology of this bill, in those whom 
it affects, in its scope and in its pur¬ 
pose we believe we are within our legal 
and moral rights, and that we are do 
ing only what is imperatively demanded 
for the protection and preservation of 
our state. 

In this enactment we have kept ever 
in. mind our national good faith as 
evidenced by existing treaties, and our 
desire and anxiety have been to act 
only in such fashion as would commend 
us to our sister states and would justify 
us to our fellow-countrymen. 

«/ The objections to our bill are based, 
first, upon the treaty obligations of the 
Nation, and, secondly, upon the asser¬ 
tion that our Act is offensive and dis¬ 
criminatory. 





ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


7 


' The protest to our measure, as your 
telegram states, comes from the repre¬ 
sentatives of Japan. 

The bill that is now before me, as 
you know, provides substantially in the 
hrst section that all aliens eligible to 
citizenship under the laws of the Unit¬ 
ed States may acquire real property in 
the same manner as citizens of the 
United States; and the second section 
provides that all aliens other than 
those mentioned, in the first section, 
may acquire real property in the man¬ 
ner and to the extent and for the pur¬ 
poses prescribed by any treaty now ex¬ 
isting between the Government of the 
United States and the Nation or coun¬ 
try of which such aliens are citizens or 
subjects; and may, in addition, lease for 
a period of three years lands for agri¬ 
cultural purposes. 

Thus we have made existing treaties 
*^a part of our law, and thus have we pre¬ 
served every right that any foreign na¬ 
tion, by international contract, has in¬ 
sisted upon preserving with our Nation¬ 
al Government. 

The treaty of 1911 with Japan in re¬ 
ference to the citizens and subjects of 
each country provides that they shall 
have “liberty to own, or lease, or oc¬ 
cupy houses, manufactures, warehouses 
and shops; to employ agents of their 
choice; to lease land for residential and 
commercial purposes and generally to 
do anything incident to or necessary for 
trade upon the same terms as native 
citizens or subjects, submitting them¬ 
selves to the laws and regulations where 
established.'"’ 

We assume that the right of Japanese 
to own real property for the purposes 
described is absolute in our state and 
we seek to deal only with our agricul¬ 
tural lands. We embody the treaty in 
our law and we add to it permission to 
lease our agricultural lands for the 
^period of three years. 

Where such extraordinary care has 
been execised to preserve honor and 
good faith—in the very words of the 
contract made by the protesting nation 
with our own—and to do more by au¬ 
thorizing lease of agricultural lands, it 
would seem that we ought not to be 
open to any accusation of violation of 
treaty rights or desire to entrench upon 
that which belongs alone to the National 
Government, or which might become a 
matter of international policv. 

By the law adopted we offer no of¬ 
fense; we make no discrimination. The 
offense and discrimination are con¬ 
tained, it is claimed, in the use of the 
words “eligible to citizenship,” and in 
making a distinction between those who 
are eligible to citizenship and those who 
are not. 


We do not mention the Japanese or 
any particular race. The Constitution 
of California in 1879, made its distinc¬ 
tion, and there never has been protest 
or objection. The naturalization laws of 
the United States, long since, without 
demur from any nation, determined who 
were and who were not eligible to 
citizenship. 

If invidious discrimination ever 
were made in this regard, the United 
States made it when the United States 
declared who were and who were not 
eligible to citizenship. 

And when we but follow and depend 
upon the statutes of the United States 
and their determination as to eligibility 
to citizenship, we cannot be accused of 
indulging in invidious discrimination. 

May I venture to call to your atten¬ 
tion the immigration law now pending in 
Congress, which passed both Houses of 
the last Congress, where apparently 
certain classes who shall be excluded 
from our country are described as 
“persons who cannot become eligible 
under existing laws to become citizens 
of the Lhiited States?” 

At this very moment the National 
Legislature, without protest or objec¬ 
tion—indeed, it is published in Cali¬ 
fornia, by express consent—is using the 
terms that are claimed in California’s 
law to be offensive and discriminatory. 

At least three states in the Union have 
in the past enacted laws similar to the 
contemplated law of California, and the 
enactments of those other states have 
been without objection or protest. 

The protest as now made in re¬ 
spect to California but emphasizes the 
acuteness of the problem confronting 
California, and demonstrates that Cali¬ 
fornia is differently viewed than other 
states in the Union; and that, if dis¬ 
crimination exists it is discrimination 
against California. 

We insist that justly no offense can 
be taken by any nation to this law, and 
more particularly does this seem to us 
clear in the instance of a nation like 
Japan, that, by its own law, prevents 
acciuisition of land by aliens. 

It is most respectfully submitted that, 
after all, the question is not whether 
any offense has been taken, but whether 
justly it should be taken. 

I voice, T think, the sentiment of the 
majority of the Legislature of this state, 
when I say that if it had been believed 
that offense could justly be taken by 
any nation to the proposed law, that 
law would not have been enacted. 

We of California believe firmly that 
in our legislative dealings with this 
alien land question we have violated 
absolutely no treaty riehts; we have 
shown no shadow of discrimination: we 



8 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


have given to no nation the right to be 
justified in taking offense. 

So believing—with a strong reliance 
on the justice and the righteousness of 
our cause, and with due deference and 
courtesy and with proper consideration 
for the feelings and the views of oth¬ 
ers—we had hoped the authorities at 
Washington would have seen the ques¬ 
tions as we in this state have been 
forced to see it, as we must see it, or be 
blind. 

And so, with all respect and courtesy, 
the State of California feels it its 
bounden duty to its citizens to do that 
which the interests of its people de¬ 
mand ; that which the conscience of its 
people approve, that which violates no 
treaty rights; that which presents no 
discrimination ; and that which can give 
no just cause for offense. 

You have suggested to me delay; but 
this question was very earnestly and 


fully presented by you to our Legisla¬ 
ture, and the Legislature determined to 
proceed. My province is to approve or 
disapprove the law as presented. Our 
people, as represented in the Legisla¬ 
ture, have overwhelmingly expressed 
their desire for the present alien bill. 
The vote in the Senate was thirty-five 
to two and in the Assembly seventy- 
two to three. 

With such unanimity of opinion, even 
did I hold other views, I would feel it 
my plain duty to sign the bill, unless 
some absolutely controlling necessity 
demanded contrary action. Apparently 
no such controlling necessity exists. It 
is with the highest respect for yourself 
and the President, that I feel my duty 
to my state compels me to approve the 
action of the Legislature. 

HIRAM JOHNSON, 
Governor. 


Comment On California's Attitude 
By Eastern Investigators 


CALIFORNIA’S SIDE OF IT 

Why the Little Man From Little Nippon is Giving the Big 
State of California a Fearfully Bad Time. 

By EDWARD HUNGERFORD, in “Harpers’ Weekly.” 


If you want to view the Japanese sit¬ 
uation through the eyes of California 
drive out to Florin, just beyond the 
wide-sprawling city of Sacramento. 
Florin is in the heart of one of the 
richest agricultural districts upon the 
continent. It grows strawberries and 
Tokay grapes, chiefly the former. Re¬ 
cently it has added another crop—little 
flat-faced, brownskinned children. And 
it is because of these children that a 
problem, at the beginning almost ex¬ 
clusively Californian, has become some¬ 
thing more than a national one. It 
is because of the thing that the chang¬ 
ing population of Florin typifies that 
a mob of twenty thousand angry Japa¬ 
nese marched through the streets of 
Tokio last month execrating Americans 
and all things American. 

It was because of this very thing 
that we drove out from Sacramento to 
Florin on a May afternoon and over 
one of the wonderful “county roads” of 
which your California farmer is so 
justly proud. The country on either side 


bespoke prosperity. Like a calm sea 
it stretched away to intangible horizons, 
a dead level of fertile land, bringing 
forth as only the semi-tropical Califor¬ 
nia farm-land can bring, the fruits of 
the earth. Innumerable home-fashioned 
windmills brought to the earth the mois¬ 
ture of hidden waters. The road that 
leads from Sacramento off toward 
Stockton is a busy way. Down it come 
automobiles of the prosperous fruit- 
farmers of the valley—and they are not 
all cheap or second-hand cars, at that. 

Florin is a typical California farm¬ 
ing village, with its broad main street, 
its dusty wooden houses, its inevitable 
yellow depot. It harbors, in addition 
to that inevitable railroad station, two 
general stores, two blacksmith shops, 
three saloons, a restaurant—so-called 
—crude little wooden church, and a 
schoolhouse over which the American 
flag is floating. Japanese own and con¬ 
duct a general store, a blacksmith shop, 
and two of the saloons, in addition to 
the restaurant. Excluding the church, 





ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


9 


the school, and the railroad, it might 
be fairly said that they hold the bal¬ 
ance of commercial power at Florin. 
And that does not represent their bal¬ 
ance of numerical strength. There are 
between 300 and 400 American men and 
women upon the polling-lists of Flor¬ 
in. There are some 1500 full-grown 
Japanese men and women dwelling with¬ 
in the township. 

It was in 1885 that Japanese emigra¬ 
tion into the United States was 
legalized, although, since 1907, the so- 
called “gentlemen's agreement” has done 
away with the necessity of issuing pass¬ 
ports. It was long after 1885 before 
California looked upon the Japanese 
with anything else than a sort of hum¬ 
orous affection. They met the merry 
taste of a merry folk. As house ser¬ 
vants they were even superior to the 
Chinese, and so house servants they 
became. That was in the beginning. 
It was not until some twelve or fifteen 
years ago that the Japanese seemed to 
take real cognizance of agricultural 
California. And it was the most nat¬ 
ural thing in the world that a class of 
men who succeeded as house servants 
because of their ability to do hard and 
grinding work, and to do it well, 
should succeed as servants in the fields 
and in the orchards. The problem of 
engaging “white help” for farm work 
was following closely in the track of 
the similar difficulties in domestic ser¬ 
vices. So the Japanese began to multi¬ 
ply in the fields of California—particu¬ 
larly in the reclaimed districts around 
about Sacramento, the San Joaquin, the 
Santa Clara, and the Vaca Valleys. 

In a little time they had more than 
merely met the shortage of “white help” 
in these farming territories, where 
plenty of human hands are necessary for 
a successful marketing of the crops. In¬ 
stead of meeting a shortage they were 
driving the white men out of many of 
the fields of California—Irish, German, 
even native born Americans, who, be¬ 
cause of mental inaptitude, might hardly 
hope for better than manual labor 
through the' years of their lives. The 
process was simple. The Japanese could 
live on lower wages. Then, when the 
last of the competent white help of those 
fertile valley bottoms had gone his way, 
the Jap began, with the slow, patient, 
persistent, insistence which is so char¬ 
acteristic of him, to demand a better 
wage. His white cmplover rubbed his 
eyes in astonishment. There was a 
point to which such advances might go 
and still leave a margin of profit for 
the owner of the farm. But that point 
was soon passed and still the inscrutable 
brown men demanded their increases. 
If they did not receive them they went 


away—and the farmer looked elsewhere 
for laborers. It was all a part of a 
well-conceived plan. 

Now you can perceive the situation, as 
the Californian sees it today. The Jap¬ 
anese having forced out the employee, 
has begun to force out the employer— 
particularly in the best lands of the 
river valleys. Staggered by the steady 
demands for an increase of pay and by 
the passing of the white farm laborer, 
the white farmer of those rich valleys 
within a hundred miles finds himself 
confronted by three choices. He can 
sell his farm to the Japanese, he can 
lease it to them, or he can let them op¬ 
erate it on shares. All these paths are 
intolerable to the native Californians— 
the sons of the men who came out to 
the state when it was a wilderness and 
who have had a hand in making it both 
strong and great—but none other seems 
open to them. Generally they are glad 
to sell and get out, sometimes they 
lease, but they very rarely are content 
to work the thing on shares. White 
man and brown man do not make con¬ 
genial partners. 

So much for the typical farm-land sit¬ 
uation. Now consider, for an instant, 
the situation in the cities. Sacramen¬ 
to, where we started to drive to Florin, 
will do. Sacramento is a typical, 
bustling, hustling, American town; with 
a decent self-respect and pride in itself 
that breaks forth in well-planned and 
handsome buildings, well-groomed 
streets and lawns. For a time the Jap¬ 
anese were content to live in the 
cheaper and older parts of the town, for 
Sacramento, like many of its larger 
brethren, has an unconscionable habit 
of spreading its wings almost over night 
and slipping out from its older and more 
congested streets. The Japanese wanted 
to spread his wings too. In no one other 
way did he show the difference that 
exists between the Chinaman and him¬ 
self more clearly. John Chinaman is 
not ambitious. He is honest, clean, 
hard-working, to his own lights highly 
moral, but when his day’s work in the 
kitchen or the laundry is finished he 
is content to smoke his pipe and dream. 
His dreams do not carry, however, far 
beyond that kitchen or that laundry. 

Your Japanese is highly different. He 
dreams of being a legislator, but in the 
meantime he is ready to take some in¬ 
termediate steps—to become a small 
shopkeeper, a banker, anything that 
brings him responsibility, increased 
earnings, and power. His social ambi¬ 
tions keep pace with his commercial. No. 
street, no quarter of any California 
city, is too good for him, or for his. 
And his methods of injecting himself 
into such a quarter is quite as ingeni- 



10 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


ous as his way of getting control of 
farmlands. 

Fie will go into the part of the city 
that he likes—in Sacramento or Berke¬ 
ley or San Jose, even San Francisco— 
and he will buy a house that he likes. 
He will pay any price that the owner de¬ 
mands, perhaps up to five times its 
value. The instant the sale is announced 
the value of other property in that 
block begins to decline. He will prob¬ 
ably pick up an adjoining house or two 
at about its assessed value. After that 
he and his compatriots can have the 
remainder of the block at their own 
price. The Japs have made a shrewd 
enough bargain to more than cover the 
outrageous price that they paid to start 
the wedge. 

“Caste!” you begin to say. 

Caste, of course, but your Californian 
is not more particular as to mingling 
with the brown men than our own be¬ 
loved south has been about mingling 
with the black man. Of course the Jap¬ 
anese with better schooling and a far 
quicker mentality, is hardly to be com¬ 
pared to the negro. That makes the 
problem the more complicated. For 
to the whites of the West coast the 
Japanese are quite as impossible in even 
the most distant social connections as 
the negroes are to the whites of the south. 

“The reason” ? you begin to demand. 
“The Japanese is infinitely superior to 
the negro.” 

Probably he is. The most bitter of 
anti-Japanese agitators will admit that 
he is a likable little fellow, cleanly in 
his habits, unwavering in his fidelity and 
his patriotism. If he is uncertain in his 
business agreements, notably so in com¬ 
parison with the scrupulous Chinaman, 
please be broad enough to realize that 
the Japanese has his own code of busi¬ 
ness morals, and lives up to them. 
Americans and Chinese have another, 
much more easily understood by all of 
us, and so the Japanese suffers. Frank¬ 
ly, he has no understanding of the 
meaning of the word “contract.” He 
thinks the white man silly to stand by 
the written provisions of a piece of 
paper with meaningless signatures upon 
it, when he can better himself by break¬ 
ing those provisions. That is the Jap¬ 
anese way of looking at a contract. He 
is quite as honest-hearted and as con¬ 
sistent in it as when he unhesitatingly 
lays down his life for a friend or for his 
native land. 

“You can put it down to racial pre¬ 
judice and let it go at that,” your Cali¬ 
fornian will tell you. “We say that our 
America is for white folks and not for 
yellow men.” 

He hesitates for a moment, then be¬ 
gins again. 


“If you want to see what we are 
struggling against, take a steamer from 
San Francisco out to Hawaii. See 
what the unrestricted inflow of yellow 
men has done for the business and social 
morals of those Islands. One Ellis Is¬ 
land is enough for the land. And in a 
little while the Canal will be finished 
and our own Portuguese problem will 
be multiplying, other problems of the 
same sort growing as Trans-Atlantic 
ships filled with the trash of southern 
Europe come sailing up to the docks of 
California.” 

Here, then, is the fullness of the 
problem. It came to be a dramatic point 
one day a few weeks ago with a hear¬ 
ing on the Alien Land bill in the big 
Capitol at Sacramento. Some effective 
voices had been lifted in oppositon to 
the measures. The management of the 
Exposition at San Francisco—that big 
show that is to be California’s joy and 
pride two years hence—stood against 
the measure. The manager of the show 
was in rather a delicate position. For 
it was Japan who was the very first of 
all the nations to enter with an exhibit. 

“We will take any number of acres 
up to six,” she said, “and agree to spend 
a million dollars an acre.” 

She was assigned two acres and im¬ 
mediately began planning to build upon 
them, in permanent form, a reproduc¬ 
tion of the Mikado’s tea-gardens which, 
when the exposition is ended will be a 
gift to the city of San Francisco. The 
management of the exposition felt its 
debt to Japan and stpod manfully 
against the bill. There were other in¬ 
terests that stood against it, among 
them concerns that had elaborate plans 
for the reclamation of marshes into 
rice-fields and the employment of 
Japanese labor for their development. 
All of these made good arguments. 
When they were done a farmer from 
over near Elk Grove was given the 
floor. Fie was a tall pantherish sort of 
a man, a deadly-in-earnest sort of a 
man who nervously stroked his chin- 
whiskers as he talked to the legislators 

“My neighbor is a Jap,” he said, 
hastily. He has an eighty-acre place 
next to mine and he is a smart fellow*. 
He has a white woman living in his 
house and upon that white woman’s 
knee is a baby. 

“Now what is that baby? It isn’t 
white. It isn’t Japanese. I’ll tell you 
what it is, it is the beginning of a 
problem—the biggest race problem that 
the world has ever known.” 

And in that instant every objection 
to the bill was swept from the minds of 
California’s legislators. 

(Harpers’ Weekly, June 7, 1913.) 



ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


11 


JAPAN IN CALIFORNIA 


By PETER CLARK MACFARLANE, in “Collier’s.” 


June 7, 1913. 

(Collier’s gave Mr. Macfarlane but 
one instruction—to find out on the 
spot, what were the conditions that had 
led California to the conviction that the 
agricultural invasion of the Japanese 
must be stopped by legislation forbid¬ 
ding persons ineligible to citizenship 
from owning or leasing farm lands. 
Here is Mr. Macfarlane’s report.) 

It was the small fruit farmer of Cali¬ 
fornia fighting for his home and for 
his American community life against 
submergence by an Asiatic social and 
industrial order which forced the Anti- 
Alien land bill through the California 
Legislature. Some of the most beau¬ 
tiful rural districts in the State were 
in jeopardy. 

In vain for Exposition Directors to 
protest, in vain for Presidents to in¬ 
tervene, in vain for Japan to cog and 
cozen—these small American farmers 
and rural communities felt they had a 
right to protection and clamored for it 
so insistently and with such manifest 
reason that none in authority dared 
refuse them. When the issue was final¬ 
ly raised there were but five men in the 
whole Legislature who dared to go 
home to their constituents and say: 

The line was drawn between the 
white man and the brown, and we voted 
for the brown. 

The details of the final vote were in 
the Assembly, seventy-two for. three 
against; in the Senate, thirty-five for, 
two against; both houses together, one 
hundred and seven for, five against. 

This vote is the best possible answer 
to the charge that there was no wide¬ 
spread demand for the legislation, or 
that the demand was of a class char¬ 
acter. Legislative districts of Califor¬ 
nia probably represent a greater variety 
of social and industrial order than those 
of any other, state in the Union; yet 
upon the subject there was almost per¬ 
fect unanimity. 

The extent of this sentiment is fur¬ 
ther witnessed by the quotation_ of a 
single sentence from an edition in the 
San Francisco “Chronicle,” a paper 
which was strongly against the bill, that 
sentence reads: 

“With perfect friendliness to the 
Japanese nation, the people of this state 
are overwhelmingly opposed to their, 
or any Orientals’ owning our land.” 


This unanimity shows that it was not 
a class but a race issue. It was the 
clash of two races meeting upon the 
frontiers of their respective civilizations. 
It is not a question of inferiority or su¬ 
periority. It is a question of existence, 
and of social existence at that. At the 
present time, and until the Panama 
Canal is opened, bringing fuller tides 
of European immigration, there is an 
industrial place for the Japanese in 
California, but socially there is no po¬ 
sition. It is this which makes the com¬ 
plication. Socially the two races will 
not co-exist. When the Japanese farm¬ 
ers move in American farmers move 
out. This has been the inevitable re¬ 
sult. 

Yet, notwithstanding these facts, and 
the urgent necessity for relief, there 
were grave facts of expediency why 
nothing whatever should be done to 
rouse the displeasure of the Japanese 
nation on the eve of the Panama Pa¬ 
cific Exposition. 

This Panama Exposition is the Cali¬ 
fornian’s defiance to the fates which 
overwhelmed San Francisco. It is 
their darling project. Into it the peo¬ 
ple of California are putting some 
seventeen millions of dollars. They 
plan to make it the world’s greatest in 
dustrial exposition. From all appear¬ 
ances they are well on their way to.re¬ 
alize this dream. The Japanese exhibit, 
for which half a million dollars has 
been promised by that government was 
to be the gem and cherry blossom of 
the Oriental exhibit. Any sort of anti- 
Japanese agitation would therefore be 
detrimental to the exposition interests, 
and California cared greatly to conserve 
those interests. But this time anti-Jap¬ 
anese agitation would not down. It re¬ 
fused to be anaesthetized. On a former 
occasion President Roosevelt had brow¬ 
beaten the California legislature . into 
inaction upon the subject. President 
Taft, after his milder wav,_ had delayed 
such legislation until it failed of pass¬ 
age before adjournment. But now the 
feeling was more intense. The situa¬ 
tion in the few affected centers had be¬ 
come acute. It was for this reason that 
both President Wilson and the Exposi¬ 
tion Directors failed. 

However, in the presence of grave 
questions of expediency, Governor 
Johnson was entirely agreeable to post¬ 
ponement. The vast majority of the 




12 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


legislators were also agreeable; bur 
there were half a dozen men in the Leg¬ 
islature who were not agreeable, men 
who came from districts in which there 
are American communities lighting for 
their very existence—Assemblymen like 
Bradford of Sacramento, Wall of San 
Joaquin, Killingsworth of Vacaville— 
Senators like Birdsall of Placer, and 
Sanford of Ukiah. With the exception 
of Sanford and Killingsworth, Demo¬ 
crats who for a day listened to Mr. 
Bryan, none of these men could be per¬ 
suaded into silence. 

For the result, Japan need not blame 
President Wilson, nor Governor John¬ 
son, nor the Directors of the Panama 
Pacific Exposition, nor the legislative 
majority. She need not even blame that 
liitie group of recalcitrant legislators 
who day after day in committee and in 
legislative session nagged and worried 
at the Anti-Alien bills until one of 
Them was reported out of Committee 
and put upon passage. 

Instead, the blame must be laid upon 
these protesting farmers who refused to 
stand idly by and see themselves forced 
out of the homes they had built, off the 
ranches they had tilled, out of the com¬ 
munities in which their children were 
being reared. 

The source of the irresistible demand 
for this legislation proceeded directly 
from the farmer through the action of 
the State Grange in passing resolutions 
demanding anti-alien land legislation 
against which not one single vote was 
recorded. And the farmers’ representa¬ 
tive, Mr. Newman, put the case before 
a joint legislative committee thus epi- 
grammatically: 

If you don’t give us relief, we are go¬ 
ing to lose our homes; not by mortgage 
foreclosure, but by Japanese inclosure. 

Just at the moment the classic in¬ 
stance of Japanese agrarian aggression 
is the town of Florin, which is but 
eight miles southeast of Sacramento 
and therefore an object lesson right at 
The doors of the legislature. The pro¬ 
ponents of the anti-alien land bill took 
great pleasure in showing Mr. Bryan by 
means of this community exactly what 
the Japanese invasion meant. Florin is 
:he center of a beautiful little vine and 
berry growing district comprising about 
twenty-four sections of land. . A dozen 
years ago, each of its vineyards and 
berry farms surrounded and sustained 
an American home. Now it is estimat¬ 
ed that sixty-five percent of these farms 
are owned or operated by Japanese— 
about 15 per cent owned and fifty per 
cent leased. Formerly there were about 
fifteen hundred whites and no Japanese 
in this community. Today it is esti¬ 
mated that there are five hundred 


whites and from fifteen hundred to 
twenty-five hundred Japanese according 
to the demands of the season. 

There were three large general mer¬ 
chandise stores in the town, owned by 
whites. Today two of those stores are 
held by the Japanese, and the lone white 
man has computed the hour of his own 
demise. 

He says that within five years the 
Nipponese will put him out of business. 
His store, too, will become Japanized. 
There were two white hotels in the 
place; now there is only a Japanese 
boarding house. There were two white 
blacksmith shops, now one of them is 
Japanese. The barber shop, the shoe 
shop, the fish market and the meat mar¬ 
ket are owned or operated by the Japa¬ 
nese. 

There is a fruit basket factory in the 
town. It formerly employed white help 
and the management prefers white help; 
but when Secretary Bryan walked into 
the factory he found forty Japanese em¬ 
ployed, the foreman being the only 
white man about. Apparently about 
half of the employees were women. 
Some of them had their babies by their 
sides. As we were preparing to take a 
picture a woman with a baby rushed 
out, but she could not take the crib with 
her. These employees are now all Jap¬ 
anese, while formerly they were all 
white because, as the manager inform¬ 
ed me, so many whites have moved 
away to avoid Japanese neighbors, he 
was compelled to employ some Japanese 
and then the remaining whites began to 
ooze out because they w r ould not work 
in the same factory with the Japanese. 

We went around to the neat little 
two roomed school house, presided over 
by two charming young women—typ¬ 
ical American rural school teachers— 
and found in a primary grade twenty 
whites and twenty-two Japanese. The 
white children in the primary were 
small but among the Japs -were two 
strapping young fellows who had been 
in high school grades in Japan. 

Ten years ago there were one hun¬ 
dred and ten white children in the 
school. Today there are but forty. The 
seventy white children who are gone 
constitute an index to the exodus of 
white families. Nor was there a single 
Japanese child in the school a decade 
ago. 

In the tow r n of Florin the great ma¬ 
jority of people one meets in the streets 
and stores are Japanese. All but a few 
of the workers seen in the fields are 
Japanese. One may stand at the freight 
station in the afternoon when the fruit 
is coming in for shipment and see for¬ 
ty wagons drawn up in line before the 
station platform, every wagon driven by 



ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


13 


a Japanese. There will be Japanese 
check clerks, Japanese roust-abouts, 
Japanese foremen and Japanese fruit 
buyers. The whole scene is Japanese. 

To see an American community that 
had been representative of the very best 
elements of our rural life thus com¬ 
pletely displaced by Orientals gives one 
a strange sensation. This sensation is 
deepened when one drives up to an Am¬ 
erican farm only to find it inhabited by 
Japanese. Imagine ourselves bowling 
along a splendid California roadway 
with the finest of fruit farms on every 
hand. We see the fence by the side of 
us and know an American built it. We 
see the house designed after American 
architectural plans, surrounded by trees 
and lawns and that profusion of flow¬ 
ers with which California's soil and cli¬ 
mate repays so bountifully the touch of 
an affectionate hand. The house is en¬ 
vironed by beautiful vineyards or or¬ 
chards and the whole is a picture of 
independence and contentment that 
makes the life of the California ranch¬ 
er seem ideal. 

But driving in at the big gate we are 
pained to notice an air of neglect about 
the garden and the door yard. The 
grass is uncut, the flowers look neglect¬ 
ed. The very house has an absentee 
air about Jt. There are no lace curtains 
at the windows, only shades. One of 
the shades goes up and a face is seen, 
peering, inquisitive, suspicious. It is 
the face of an oriental. We round the 
corner and Japanese babies are sprawl¬ 
ing before the door. We turn toward 
the barnyard and a pair of Japanese 
boys are romping there. The barnyard 
itself has an. empty look. There are no 
cows or calves, not even a fowl, for 
these Japanese of Florin are tillers of 
the soil pure and simple. Beyond the 
barn one sees a Japanese plowing. In 
a berry patch to the left half a dozen 
men and women are squatting in the 
rows, pushing their picking trays before 
them. If we could look inside of this 
American house and see hew it is fur¬ 
nished and occupied by its Japanese 
owners we should be still more depress¬ 
ed. 

Pictures of cherry-blossom festivals 
in the Flowery Kingdom and stories of 
the wizardy of Japanese gardeners 
would lead one to suppose these Jap¬ 
anese “occupations” would be found 
blossoming with floral beauty and fra¬ 
grance. The contrary is true. Noth¬ 
ing apoears to receive attention but 
that which can be sold for money. 

The rainbow hues fade out as we see 
these people in the midst of a Western 
environment. Sordid realism takes the 
place of romance. We see merely an 
alien race with likes that are not our 


likes, ambitions that are not our ambi¬ 
tions, satisfactions that are not our sat¬ 
isfactions, with morals that are to us 
no morals, and habits of life that make 
social relation with them utterly im¬ 
possible. 

At the next farm we find the same 
condition, a Japanese family in an Am¬ 
erican home, except that perhaps it is 
not a family—merely three or four men 
and a woman whose status is exceed¬ 
ingly doubtful. At the next farm we 
see an American in possession but learn 
that he is going to leave. His farm is 
for sale or lease. 

Neither he nor his family can endure 
the prospect of Japanese neighbors, and 
because of those neighbors the selling- 
value of his farm upon which he has 
lavished the long labors of years is 
greatly decreased. And so it goes over 
the beautiful countryside of Florin. 

What the Japanese have done in Flor¬ 
in they have done to a greater or less 
degree in the fruit-growing districts of 
Solano, of Santa Cruz and Placer 
Counties, and in the vegetable-growing 
delta district at the confluence of the 
Sacramento and the San Joaquin Riv¬ 
ers. 

Moreover, what the Japanese have 
done in certain farming communities 
they have done also in the cities. Sac¬ 
ramento, San Francisco, Oakland, Los 
Angeles, Stockton, all have their Jap¬ 
anese quarters, block after block, solid 
or becoming solid, where the brown 
men come in, purchased a foothold at 
an exorbitant cost, and then by their 
social obnoxiousness depressed rental 
and property values till whites were 
forced out and the Asiatic tide flowed 
in behind them unobstructed. 

Now let it be borne in mind that this 
reference to the Japanese colonies in the 
cities is. for the purpose of this article, 
purely illustrative, because the Treaty 
of 1911 with Japan expressly concedes 
to the Japanese the right to lease and 
occupy real estate for residential and 
certain business purposes. 

Reverting again to the disturbed areas 
it must be borne in mind all the time 
that these are comparatively small. 
There are only 55,000 Japanese in Cali¬ 
fornia; and but half of these are en¬ 
gaged in agricultural pursuits. In many 
communities the labor of these men is 
exceedingly welcome. In some of the 
very counties where the Japanese popu¬ 
lation is largest the Japanese fit into the 
industrial scheme so well that the only 
protest comes from the white laborer 
who must compete against them. 

In the beginning the California ranch¬ 
er hailed the advent of the Japanese 
laborer joyously. He was by no means 
ideal; he was hired principally in gangs 



14 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


and through a boss; he was tricky, 
grasping, and unscrupulous about keep¬ 
ing contracts; but he tilled a gap creat¬ 
ed by the gradual decrease ot the Chi¬ 
nese since the exclusion act, and he 
was the best available until the hoped- 
for influx of agricultural labor from 
Europe should come by way of the Isth¬ 
mus Canal. 

Besides all of which the Jap is pe¬ 
culiarly adept at “squat” labor. Because 
of that the berry crop of California is 
almost entirely in his hands. 

In some situations, too, he has work¬ 
ed successfully where the white man 
could not work at all. 

For instance, in the delta of the San 
Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers where 
the white man could not compete with 
unhealthy nature, the Japanese came in, 
survived year after year, raised a bet¬ 
ter potato crop than the white man 
could raise, graded it better, sold it bet¬ 
ter, and has all but taken entire posses¬ 
sion of the land. 

The leading producer in this whole 
district is a Japanese, George Shima, 
who is sometimes called the potato 
king. He is said to be worth a half 
million dollars and is assessed in the 
San Joaquin Valey for $141,680. 

Yet the use of fuel oil by steamers 
with its consequent wastage from pass¬ 
ing boats and seepage into the tule 
grasses has killed out the mosquitoes to 
such an extent that it is claimed in a 
few years more the delta will be com¬ 
fortably habitable for white men, and 
they will be prepared to go back and 
contend with the Japs for a place upon 
this soil of Egyptian richness. 

Formerly the Japanese worked cheap ¬ 
er than the Chinaman, but now he gets 
as much as the Celestial or even the 
Italian farm laborer. 

Japanese farm labor falls into two 
classes: the gang labor of the picking 
and harvesting crew, and the all-the- 
year-round labor. The coming and go¬ 
ing of these large gangs of temporary 
Japanese laborers constituted no serious 
social problem; but the farmer began to 
find it to his advantage to employ the 
all-the-vear-round labor by means of 
leases, usually under such terms as re¬ 
tained control of the entire agricultural 
operation in the hands of his Caucasian 
self. The advantage to the landlord was 
that it relieved him from the whimsical 
and uncertain disposition of Japanese 
labor, which could then no longer jump 
up and leave him in the middle of the 
night or in the process of crop grow¬ 
ing or harvest. 

But these leases proved a stepping- 
stone to Japanese ownership of the 
lands. Once a foothold was gained, the 
Japanese colonization operated to the 


exclusion of the whites in two ways. 
The first was by forcing the whites out 
of employment upon the soil. The ex¬ 
tent of this crowding out was startling¬ 
ly revealed by an investigation conduct¬ 
ed in 1909 by the State of California 
into the relation of the Japanese popu¬ 
lation to agricultural operation. 

This commission visited 4102 farms 
scattered over twenty-six counties. It 
found 1733 of these farms operated by 
Japanese either as owners or lessees. 
On these Japanese-operated farms 96 
percent of the labor employed was Jap¬ 
anese. Of the 2369 farms, 54.4 percent 
of the labor was white, 36.4 percent was 
Japanese, and the remaining 10.2 per¬ 
cent was Chinese, Mexican, Hindu and 
Indian. 

In other words the coming of Jap¬ 
anese into possession or control of the 
farms of a given community occasions 
a reduction of white labor employed by 
approximately 90 percent—which practi¬ 
cally means obliteration. 

The second blighting effect is through 
social pressure. There is little use to 
argue or speculate over whether the 
two races should dwell together in 
brotherly affection. The fact is that 
they will not. 

The Japanese—without meaning any 
disrespect to the little brown man— 
does not commend himself to the aver¬ 
age American farmer family as a de¬ 
sirable neighbor. He is not overly 
clean. He is accused of being unmor¬ 
al. It is claimed the Japanese have no 
marriage tie as we know the institution. 
Women, if scarce, may be held pretty 
much in common. The white farmer’s 
wife does not run in and sit down to 
gossip with the Japanese farmer’s wife 
and she does not want the Japanese 
farmer’s wife running in to gossip with 
her. Their children cannot play togeth¬ 
er. Jenny Brown cannot go for a bug¬ 
gy ride with Harry Hirada. The whole 
idea of social intercourse betiveen the 
races is absolutely unthinkable. It is 
not that the white agriculturist cannot 
compete with the Japanese agricultur¬ 
ist. It is that he will not live beside 
him. 

So, in the fruit-growing districts of 
California, when the Japanese get a 
foothold through ownership or a long 
term lease, there is nothing for the 
American family to do but to move. 
The Jap has found that out. Fie knows 
he may have to pay an exorbitant price 
for the first piece of real estate in a 
community, but he knows also that his 
presence will depress the value of the 
next and the more he buys the cheaper 
the land around him becomes. This is 
very well for him. It is not well for 
the American farmer who helplessly 



ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


15 


sees the value of his property impaired 
without power to remedy, since once 
the Japanese gets title to that property 
there is no way of ousting him. 

In consequence the California fruit 
farmer in the threatened communities 
seeks a law prohibiting the Japanese 
from acquiring agricultural lands. To 
make this protection real, there must 
ultimately be a law forbidding him to 
lease agricultural land; but in order to 
give the farmer time for adjustment to 
the new conditions that must come, the 
right to make leases for terms not ex¬ 
ceeding three years was provided for 
in the bill enacted. Again the hoped- 
for relief is immigration from Europe 
by way of the canal. 

But still the question recurs: since 
Japanese laborers are now excluded 
from the country, why. does the ques¬ 
tion not abate instead of . becoming 
more acute? The answer is that the 
very fact of exclusion has tended to¬ 
ward provision for permanent resi¬ 
dence in this country. _ Up to that time 
the Japanese communities were more 
or less in the nature of temporary 
camps. Men came over for a few 
years, engaged in business or labor, 
made money, and went back. The new 
disposition to permanent settlement is 
strikingly revealed in the increase m 
the number of Japanese women immi¬ 
grants. Up to 1904, when there was 
little or no serious talk of exclusion, 
the number of Japanese women who 
came in was but about six in the hun¬ 
dred. In 1911 the number was seventy 
in the hundred. The method of getting 
these women into the country m t!ie 
face of exclusion by the so-called Gen¬ 
tlemen’s Agreement of 1908 is by the 
familiar device of a “picture marriage. 
Bv this process the Japanese m Amer¬ 
ica sends his picture home, some wo¬ 
man marries the photograph, and then 
the Japanese Government issues a pas-* 
port to the picture bride. It is report¬ 
ed that the Japanese Government fa¬ 
vors in passport issuance the Picture 
bride of the man who. has effected a 
lodgment upon California soil. > 

The extent to which this colonization 
is going on in Sacramento County, tor 
instance, is shown by the fact: that for 
the vear ending May 1, 1913, lie lease, 
and '122 deeds to Japanese were record¬ 
ed For the month of April alone 26 

deeds to Japanese were recorded or 
one-fifth as many as m the whole yea 
previous, indicating the hurry to get 
transfers recorded before t le - 
Alien Land Law could shut them off. 
Increased activity in buying and leas 
ing was one reason why the proponents 
of the legislation were unwilling to sus¬ 
pend action for two years. They did 


not believe the Japanese land buyers 
would also suspend activity. On May 
8, the very morning of my inquiry at 
the Recorder’s office, one ten-year lease 
to Japanese and six deeds came in. 

As also significant, the fact is cited 
that within a short space of time ten 
transfers of property to Hindus were 
made in one small settlement adjacent 
to city of Sacramento, showing that the 
bill will also curb the activities of cer¬ 
tain other “aliens ineligible to citizen¬ 
ship.” 

A still more startling piece of infor¬ 
mation gleaned from the Recorder’s of¬ 
fice was that the number of births for 
the year in the county of Sacramento, 
outside the corporate limits of the city 
of Sacramento, was 274, of which 107 
were Japanese. This bears out the as¬ 
sertion made in Florin and other dis¬ 
tricts that, since the great influx of 
women, Japanese babies are beginning 
to rain down. 

To show how greatly California ru¬ 
ral communities begin to dread this 
Japanization, and how desperately they 
struggle to protect themselves, the case 
of the town of Elk Grove is cited. Elk 
Grove, also in Sacramento County, lies 
eight miles beyond Florin to the south, 
and is like it, a fruit growing district, 
but with the products slightly more di¬ 
versified. The Elk Grove district is 
very prosperous. The little town bears 
evidence of this in neat rows of mod¬ 
ern cottages, in business blocks, several 
of which are new, trim, and substantial. 
The general air of Elk Grove is one of 
progress and prosperity, quite in con¬ 
trast to that of Florin. But this dif¬ 
ferent appearance is due to the fact that 
Elk Grove is strictly an American com¬ 
munity. It earnestly desires to remain 
so, yet has lived in yearly horror of 
the Japanese invasion. . Every meas¬ 
ure possible to protect itself has been 
taken. On December 5, 1911, the Elk 
Grove Board of Trade adopted two 
resolutions which, after a half dozen 
whereases of various import, declared 
as follows: 

RESOLVED, That we, as a body 
and as individuals, do now and at all 
times utterly condemn the practice. of 
selling land to Japanese in this vicinity, 
and. be it further 

RESOLVED, That we shall at all 
times urge all citizens of this commu¬ 
nity to use their best endeavor to keep 
this vicinity free of Japanese residents. 

Similar resolutions were adopted by 
the Elk Grove Grange. 

But this was not deemed sufficient. 
An agreement was drawn up, the ker¬ 
nel of which is: 

“That we will not sell at any time 
any of our real property to one of the 



16 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


Asiatic race, nor permit anyone to do 
so for us.” 

This agreement was presented to all 
landowmers within a radius of four 
miles of Elk Grove, and all but four 
signed it. This information was fur¬ 
nished to me by Mr. Charles H. Coop¬ 
er, secretary of the bank cf Elk Grove, 
with a letter from which I quote: 

“There is one thing that is certain 
to come to pass in any community 
where Japanese start buying land, and 
that is that the white people will leave 
that community as soon as they can 
make satisfactory disposition of their 
property. The white people of the 
East who criticize us so severely would 
take the same stand as we do if they 
lived here in competition with the Japs. 
In fact, some of the most ardent sup¬ 
porters of alien-land legislation in this 
community are the people who lately 
came from the East and bought prop¬ 
erty, and when they found that they 
would likely have Japs for neighbors in 
the near future, they soon changed 
their views.” 

But even if ever}* man signed the 
agreement, it would be powerless to 
protect Elk Grove. The Japanese, 
creeping steadily down from Florin, 
buying or leasing one farm after an¬ 
other, and making the next farm un¬ 
tenable, would inevitably overflow Elk 
Grove, drive out the whites, and turn 
that beautiful little city into a Japa¬ 
nese town. Their only hope was law. 

The Democratic State platform of 
1912 had declared: 

“We favor the passage of a bill that 
will prevent any alien not eligible to 
citizenship from owning land in the 
State of California. 

Now it happens that Elk Grove and 
Florin are both in the same Assembly 
district. The Democratic candidate for 
the Assembly was a young attorney of 
Sacramento, Hugh B. Bradford by 
name. Fie made his campaign almost 
solely on the basis of this anti-alien 
plank in the Democratic platform. 

When at caucus time, before the op¬ 
ening of the legislative session, the 
representatives of the Panama-Pacific 
Exposition appeared and made their al¬ 
most tearful plea that no anti-Japanese 
measure should even be discussed, 
Bradford was one of the men who 
could not be moved. He declared his 
intention to introduce an anti-alien 
land bill on the first day, and he did. 

In the Senate was also a man who 
would not listen to argument, Senator 
Birdsall of Placer Count)', who, when 
his name was called, arose and intro¬ 
duced an anti-alien land bill, which, 
with slight amendment, became the 


Webb bill, finally passed by both 
Houses. However, Bradford in the 
Assembly was the first to get his bill 
to a vote, and on April 15 it was pass¬ 
ed, the ayes being 60 and the noes 15. 

It was this favorable vote on the 
Bradford bill that precipitated the sen¬ 
sation which was both national and in¬ 
ternational in character, and resulted in 
some delicious bits of political compli¬ 
cation. 

First, there was the seemingly para¬ 
doxical position of President Wilson 
himself on the matter at issue. Both 
Roosevelt and Taft had hammered 
California legislators hard when they 
attempted to discuss anti-Oriental leg¬ 
islation. But President Wilson had 
been made to appear committed to the 
other side. 

The Democratic State Campaign 
Committee of 1912 had circulated wide¬ 
ly a card, on one side of which was 
printed “Wilson and the Japanese,” and 
reading: 

“Woodrow Wilson is for the exclu¬ 
sion of the Japanese from the United 
States. On May 3, 1912, he said: In the 
matter of Chinese and Japanese coolie 
immigration, I stand for the national 
policy of exclusion. The whole ques¬ 
tion is one of assimilation of diverse 
races. We cannot make a homogene¬ 
ous population out of a people who do 
not blend with the Caucasian race. 
Their lower standard of living as la¬ 
borers will crowd out the white agri¬ 
culturist, and is in other fields a most 
serious industrial menace. The success 
of free democratic institutions demands 
of our people education, intelligence, 
and patriotism, and the State should 
protect them against unjust and impos¬ 
sible competitions. Remunerative labor 
is the basis of contentment. Democracy 
rests upon the equality of the citizens. 
Oriental coolieism will give us another 
race problem to solve, and surely we 
have had our lesson.” 

No more effective statement of the 
case for these rural and semirural com¬ 
munities threatened with Japanese sub¬ 
mergence could have been made. Of 
course Mr. Wilson was speaking di¬ 
rectly of exclusion, but when he said 
that “intelligence and patriotism and 
the State should protect them—i. e., 
white agriculturists—against unjust and 
impossible competition,” he was voic¬ 
ing exactly what the white agriculturist 
is crying for today in the alien land 
bill—protection ! 

Moreover, the Democratic State 
Campaign Committee, upon the reverse 
of the card, under the title of “Roose¬ 
velt and the Japanese,” had placed a 
quotation from Roosevelt’s message to 

■ fi.Mi | 



ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


1; 


Congress, recommending that Japanese 
be admitted to citizenship, and certain 
additional sentences of which the fol¬ 
lowing two are a good sample: 

“Roosevelt believes the Japanese 
should be allowed to overrun the land 
of California. lie demanded of the 
State Legislature that it enact no laws 
denying Japanese the right to acquire 
title to land.” 

This piece of campaign literature un¬ 
doubtedly cost Roosevelt many votes 
and undoubtedly gained many for Pres¬ 
ident Wilson, yet here was President 
Wilson standing in the exact position 
of his predecessors and asking that no 
legislation be enacted. 

The President, however, is by no means 
to be accused of insincerity on this 
showing. He appears to have been 
forced by considerations of state into a 
position to which his convictions would 
never lead him. 

Another paradoxical element cropped 
up in the position over State rights. 
President Wilson is the national leader 
of a political party which emphasizes 
the doctrine of State rights; yet here 
he was at the door of a State urging 
the nation’s rights. On the other hand. 
Governor Johnson had been the Vice 
Presidential candidate for a party 
which stands for a super-emphasized 
nationalism, yet he was placed in the 
position of sustaining before an insist¬ 
ent President the rights of a State to 
its own autonomy. 

Still another paradox arose out of 
the fact that the anti-alien land pro¬ 
gram, in so far as it was a party meas¬ 
ure at all, was strictly a Democratic 
one. 

But to pick up the thread of the nar¬ 
rative : With the passage of the Brad¬ 
ford bill, Japan protested to the Pres¬ 
ident, and the President protested to 
Governor Johnson, and Governor 
Johnson passed the protest to the Leg¬ 
islature. 

While up to this time Governor 
Johnson had taken no fatherly interest 
whatever in the Anti-Alien Land Bill, 
he resented the volley of criticism 
which was leveled at the Legislature 
by the Eastern press, and besides as¬ 
suring the President that the Legisla¬ 
ture might be depended upon to re¬ 
spect both treaty obligations and its 
own duty to the nation, he leaped into 
the newspaper columns himself with 
some paragraphs of bristling argument 
in behalf of the State rights to^ enact 
this protective legislation exactly as 
Arizona, Washington, and other States 
had done. California, it appeared, was 
being put before the nation in the po¬ 
sition of a bad boy who was rocking 
the boat when, as a matter of fact, he 


was only trying to steer. The firing of 
the Governor’s first barrel of argument 
in rebuttal centered press criticism up¬ 
on himself. His response to this was a 
second barrel rejoinder, reinforcing his 
arguments by additional citations of the 
acts of other States, and declaring: 

"We protest, while we are merely 
debating similar laws, against having 
trained upon us, not only the verbal 
batteries of Japan, but those of our 
own community.” 

But all the while, too, Governor 
Johnson was receiving intimations that 
he was jeopardizing the interests of 
the national Progressive party by tak¬ 
ing a stand that was not popular in the 
East. At about the same time tele¬ 
grams began to arrive in the Execu¬ 
tive’s office from Oyster Bay. These 
telegrams have never been made pub¬ 
lic, but a section of the press assumed 
them to consist of exhortations to 
stand pat against the proposals from 
Washington. Such inference overlooks 
the fact that Colonel Roosevelt as 
President had himself successfully co¬ 
erced a California Legislature into in¬ 
action when bent on similar intent; 
therefore it may be concluded safely 
that anything which came to Governor 
Johnson from Colonel Roosevelt was 
in the way of an exhortation to stand 
from under. 

But the state of the Governor’s mind 
appears to have been that of the ma¬ 
jority of the Legislature—a disposition 
to let the matter sleep if it would, but 
—soothing sirup failing—the issue once 
clearly raised, there was to him, as to 
others, but one side to the question. 
Accordingly, since the time of the pass¬ 
age of the Bradford bill, he had been 
gradually coming to feel that, despite 
all questions of expediency, some such 
legislation was inevitable, and on the 
very night before Secretary Bryan’s 
arrival, the Governor announced to the 
Progressive leaders that he was for 
some such enactment as the Birdsall 
bill, then pending in the Senate. 

However, his nearest approach to a 
public exercise of the gubernatorial in¬ 
fluence was the widely published ut¬ 
terance made near the close of the sec¬ 
ond joint legislative conference with 
Mr. Bryan on the first day of the Sec¬ 
retary’s arrival. All the afternoon Mr. 
Bryan had been bearing down upon the 
fact that the dignitv of Japan had been 
offended. At length the Governor ask¬ 
ed the floor, and in the course of a 
four-minute speech uttered these sent¬ 
ences : 

“The point of inquiry, it seems to 
me, should be—and I speak perhaps 
academically in this regard—not: Is 
Japan offended today, but is Japan 



18 


ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA. 


justly offended today? Is there any¬ 
thing that is contemplated by the Leg¬ 
islature of the State of California that 
should give and would give to any na¬ 
tion logically looking at the problem 
just offense? If there be just offense 
given, none of us desires that that shall 
be so; but if it be a fact that offense 
is taken where justly it ought not to 
be taken, then we are justified in pro¬ 
ceeding with our legislation in the 
State of California.” 

These remarks of the Governor were 
received with prolonged applause. 

In the meantime Secretary Bryan had 
completely failed to impress the Leg¬ 
islature with any reason for abandon¬ 
ing the proposed enactment, which the 
3iiembers felt was solid enough to be 
offered successfully to their constitu¬ 
ents as an excuse for postponement of 
action. 

However, as the representative of 
the titular head of the Democratic par¬ 
ty, appealing to Democratic members 
o'f the Legislature, Secretary Bryan 
was more successful. His party rea¬ 
sons appeared to be more cogent than 
his diplomatic ones. 

At his suggestion Senator Curtin in¬ 
troduced a resolution postponing the 
issue for two years, and for this reso¬ 
lution every Democratic Senator but 
two and all but six of the Democratic 
Assemblymen voted; but the Progres¬ 
sives were almost solidly against it, so 
that the Curtin resolution was lost by 
46 to 23 in the Assembly, and 26 to 10 
in the Senate. 

At all times Mr. Bryan conducted 
himself with consummate tact ana won 
the affection of everyone with whom 
he came in touch, including the Pro¬ 
gressive Governor, who, although he 
found it necessary to oppose his mis¬ 
sion, yet declared that it was doubtful 
if any other than the altogether charm¬ 
ing Secretary of State could have car¬ 
ried himself through the delicate situ¬ 
ations in which he was placed and in 
which he placed himself without cer¬ 
tain shipwreck. 

On the other hand everyone was 
kind to Mr. Bryan. The Governor en¬ 
tertained him in his home. The Lieu¬ 
tenant Governor placed his office at the 
Secretary’s disposal, thus affording him 
accommodation across the hall from 
the Scnstc 

The Legislature and the legislators 
heard him whenever he desired to be 
heard, and the Assembly even went 
so far as to interrupt its debate before 


the final vote on the bill to allow him 
to say good bye, good-naturedly as¬ 
senting when he seized the occasion to 
make one final plea for postponement. 

During the Assembly debate to which 
Mr. Bryan was a listener, a point came 
out which revealed to the Secretary of 
State that his cause had been hopeless 
from the first. 

This was an unchallenged statement 
to the effect that the labor movement in 
the State had, ever since the election 
campaign, held the pledges of 90 per 
cent of the legislators to vote for an 
Anti-Alien Land Bill. 

While the presence of Secretary 
Bryan in the Capital of a sovereign 
State actively endeavoring to influence 
legislation produced some tense and 
delicate situations, no unpleasantness 
of any kind resulted; and when he 
failed to attain the object of his mis¬ 
sion, he undoubtedly secured for the 
President valuable first-hand informa¬ 
tion as to the state of the popular mind 
on the cause in issue, and it is not like¬ 
ly that anything but good will come 
from the visit aside from the establish¬ 
ment of what may be regarded as a 
doubtful precedent. 

It remains but to say a word about 
the law. Undoubtedly the President’s 
criticisms, suggestions, and objections 
resulted in a more euphemistic word¬ 
ing of the document. The words “in¬ 
eligible to citizenship” do not appear. 
This is avoided by affirming in one sec¬ 
tion the rights of aliens eligible to citi¬ 
zenship, and then in a second section 
affirming that aliens not covered by the 
first section may “acquire, possess, en¬ 
joy, transmit, and transfer real proper¬ 
ty .. . in the manner and to the 

extent and for the purposes presented 
by any treaty now existing,” etc. 

By the expedient of this phrasing, the 
law not only avoids contravening the 
Treaty of 1911 with Japan but follows 
the very line of cleavage laid down by 
that document, which as before stated 
secured to the Japanese the right to 
lease and occupy land for certain resi¬ 
dential and business purposes but was 
emphatically silent on agricultural 
lands. 

It is difficult to see, therefore, how 
the Japanese nation can successfully 
oppose a law which practically enacts a 
Japanese treaty into a California stat¬ 
ute and bars the Japanese citizens from 
no privilege in California from which 
California’s citizens are not also barred 
in Japan. 










LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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